BTC Vault - Secure Bitcoin Live-CD

[dswd]

http://dswd.github.com/btcvault
Hi folks,

I want to share something with you that I originally prepared for myself: BTC Vault.

BTC Vault is a Linux Live-CD that should help to store and handle bitcoins securely.
It is a minor adaptation of the Slax Linux distribution with my contribution being so small that you can check it for yourself and see that it does not contain malicious code. If you did the check, please post it here along with the checksums of the files inside your slax directory.

More information is located on the homepage: http://dswd.github.com/btcvault

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[Istie]

thx for the link!

[Stephen Gornick]

Nice, it has the Javascript-based wallets as well, so includes static pages for BitAddresss.org, Brainwallet.org and Blockchain.info/wallet.

It is a minor adaptation of the Slax Linux distribution with my contribution being so small that you can check it for yourself and see that it does not contain malicious code. If you did the check, please post it here along with the checksums of the files inside your slax directory.

Has anyone reviewed the following yet?

The file 9999-btcvault.sb contains all BTC Vault specific changes to Slax. Those changes are not many, so you can just unpack that module using the unsquashfs command and check the contents manually.

- http://dswd.github.com/btcvault/security.html

[Stephen Gornick]

BTC Vault is a Linux Live-CD that should help to store and handle bitcoins securely.

Also, this may need clarification:

With the electrum bitcoin client it is enough to backup the master key called "seed":
You can print it out and store it in a safe place.
You can encrypt it and store it on another safe computer or on a usb stick.
You can use steganography to hide it in an image file.

- http://dswd.github.com/btcvault/security.html

The problem is if someone imports a private key to Electrum, that Electrum wallet still needs to be backed up -- just having the seed is not sufficient.

[dswd]

The problem is if someone imports a private key to Electrum, that Electrum wallet still needs to be backed up -- just having the seed is not sufficient.

You are absolutely right, I will change the page to clarify that.

@Stephen Gornick:
BTC Vault does not include a local copy of blockchain.info (as this side requires a server) but only a link to it.

[Stephen Gornick]

BTC Vault does not include a local copy of blockchain.info (as this side requires a server) but only a link to it.

Ah, I was remembering some method that their HTML page with javascript allowed offline wallet access. 

I guess the script to decrypt a wallet might work instead to provide offline access to a blockchain.info AES-encrypted wallet. Perhaps that would make a useful addition to a future release?
 - https://gist.github.com/fcicq/3368495

[dswd]

Hello,

short notification: BTC Vault 0.2 just released:

- Added local copy of bitaddress.org with shortcut on desktop and in menu
- Disabled flash plugin by default
- Disabled Xorg server network functionality
- Added 7z encryption capability
- Some bugfixes

All information and the download is available under http://dswd.github.com/btcvault


@Stephen Gornick:

There is a Firefox extension for blockchain.info that contains static javascript and pages. I will have a look into it and try to include it in the next version.

[e521]

I will try this out thanks

[maxmint]

Would be great to have this with Armory on it.

[Stampbit]

This looks neat but the fact its targeted towards bitcoin makes me uneasy. Better to use a target neutral secure live cd.

[dswd]

@maxmint: Armory needs the full block chain (if I am right). This does not make for a good live cd if you need to download a couple of hundred megabytes each time and have no place to store it other than RAM.

@Stampbit: A neutral live-cd does not include any Bitcoin-related software. Fetching such software would be as insecure on a live cd as on a normal computer (maybe even worse as you would have to do it over and over again). I tried to minimize my Bitcoin-specific contribution so people can verify it.

[log2exp]

Thanks, will give it a try on a USB key.

[maxmint]

@maxmint: Armory needs the full block chain (if I am right). This does not make for a good live cd if you need to download a couple of hundred megabytes each time and have no place to store it other than RAM.

Armory can run just fine without the block chain on an offline system, but only to provide an offline wallet. But I guess you weren't planning an offline system.

[superbit]

@maxmint: Armory needs the full block chain (if I am right). This does not make for a good live cd if you need to download a couple of hundred megabytes each time and have no place to store it other than RAM.

Armory can run just fine without the block chain on an offline system, but only to provide an offline wallet. But I guess you weren't planning an offline system.

This would be great if it had the offline version of armory, you could then use it to sign the transactions of your online wallet all on the same machine.

[ChiangYay]

bootinst doesnt work.
Keep asking to insert a disk into drive \Device\Harddisk2\DR2.
What does it mean?

[JSMill]

This is great, thanks.  Having armory on it would be awesome though.

[Stephen Gornick]

Recently shared was a similar project based on Puppy Linux:


Portable Encrypted USB Bitcoin Wallet (Puppy Linux, Electrum)
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=257672.0
 - http://www.musicresolutions.com/portfolio/portable-encrypted-usb-bitcoin-wallet-puppy-linux-electrum

[Abdussamad]

Does this make use of the swap partition if one exists on the hard drive? If it does that should be changed because it could leave behind traces of private keys. Tails os for instance does not do that:

https://tails.boum.org/

[letcore]

http://dswd.github.com/btcvault
Hi folks,

I want to share something with you that I originally prepared for myself: BTC Vault.

BTC Vault is a Linux Live-CD that should help to store and handle bitcoins securely.
It is a minor adaptation of the Slax Linux distribution with my contribution being so small that you can check it for yourself and see that it does not contain malicious code. If you did the check, please post it here along with the checksums of the files inside your slax directory.

More information is located on the homepage: http://dswd.github.com/btcvault

Downloaded. Love the included Brainwallet and Bitaddress websites. Also very small, loads quick, works fast and even connects to internet quickly. Great stuff.

It's brilliant.

A little reward to say thank you is on it's way in Bitcoin form!

[keo]

Updated BTC Vault with Electrum 1.8.1 and newest bitaddress + brainwallet scripts.

Dennis - here's a pull request: https://github.com/dswd/btcvault/pull/1

Please create a new release if you see fit.


Here's my own build until then: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lwbfziicvu7142e/-hPxHQZAFb